Little impact from Fukuda resignation: Investec

LONDON (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's resignation will not have much impact on overseas investors' view of Japan, where financial assets are driven by global forces, Investec Asset Management said on Monday.

Philip Whittome, a Japan fund manager at Investec Asset Management which runs about $1 billion in assets in Japan, said Fukuda has been disappointing to many foreign investors in the sense that he did not push along former premier Junichiro Koizumi's reforms.

"It won't make a significant difference," Whittome told Reuters. "The stock market has been reacting to things more internationally."

Fukuda said on Monday he was resigning in an effort to break a political deadlock, an announcement that trimmed the Japanese yen's gains against major currencies.

Whittome said Japanese markets currently had barely anything to do with domestic politics.

"The problem for Japan has not been anything to do with lack of political leadership," he said. "It is more to do with the underlying economy and the underlying global economy.

As an example, he cited the performance of Japanese banking shares vis a vis the U.S.-led subprime mortgage and credit crisis.

"Japanese banks have been dragged down by ... concerns about debt ... in the same way as western banks, although they are hardly exposed at all," he said.